GH competitive cheer opens
season today

Sat, Jan
12, 2008

BY MATT DEYOUNG

[email-masked]

Courtesy photo The Grand Haven
competitive cheer squad.

With only one girl
returning from a year ago, and new coaches taking over the reigns of the
program, the Grand Haven competitive cheer team is treating today's
season-opening competition as a learning experience.

"They had a
competitive cheer team last year, but only one girl from that team made it to
this year's team, so we only have one girl back and two new coaches,"
said new coach Holly Holmes, who along with younger sister April Holmes bring their team to Allendale today.

"It's been a
good experience, and it's definitely been a learning experience," Holly
Holmes added. "All of us, the teams and coaches, are treating this like
a learning experience, to see what the other teams are doing."

The lone carryover
from last year's team is sophomore Lillian Kortman.
The remainder of the team consists of one junior: Tiffany Hatton; four
sophomores: Kortman, Danielle Kamps,
Jessica Nicholl and Ashleigh Storybeak;
and five freshmen: Robyn DeYoung, Krystal Goresch, Alison Harris, Kailey
Sharp and Marika VanDogen.

The team's coaches
competed in both sideline and competitive cheer at Spring Lake
High School. Holly
graduated in 2004 while April wrapped up her career at Spring Lake
in 2006.

"Both my sister
and I did sideline and competitive cheer in high school, and I had coached
sideline for three seasons, but this is a completely different
experience," Holly Holmes said. "We've had four practices a week,
three hours long, and the first couple weeks were just conditioning, getting
the girls' endurance ready."

The team attended a
stunt camp at Byron
Center High
School in December, and hopes that experience,
along with the long hours of practice, will pay off as the season progresses.

Holmes explained that
competitive cheer competitions consist of three segments. First is a
90-second cheer, with everything on the floor level. The second is a
90-second routine based on skills such as tumbling, jumps and splits. The
third is all stunting, which includes throwing girls into the air and other
off-the-ground elements.

"That's our
toughest round, especially with a young team," Holmes said. "But
the girls have been very receptive, and parents have been very supportive,
too."

After today's event,
the Buccaneers will attend three more competitions: at Mona Shores on Jan.
17, at Reeths-Puffer on Jan. 26, and at Hudsonville Unity Christian on Feb.
6.

The squad cheered at
halftime of Thursday's varsity girls basketball game .